1. Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a softening apparatus including an ion exchanger that may be repeatedly regenerated using hydrogen ions (H+) produced by electrolysis.
2. Description of the Related Art
When detergents are used in household appliances using water, such as washing machines and dishwashers to remove non-polar contaminants, washing performance may be reduced due to hardness of water, microorganisms proliferating in water may cause contamination, and scales may develop.
A method of increasing solubility of detergents by heating water using a heater, a method of removing hardness components via ion exchange, and capacitive deionization (CDI) that is an electrochemical method using electrostatic attraction of ion components have been utilized in order to prevent the reduction in washing performance caused by hard water. However, since hardness components (Ca2+ and Mg2+) cannot be completely removed according to these methods, the hardness components may be precipitated in objects to be washed, or a complicated system may be required thereby increasing manufacturing costs and requiring high energy consumption.
High-temperature sterilization, bleach sterilization, anion sterilization, and the like have been used to remove microorganism contamination. However, these methods also require high energy consumption, use of additional chemicals may cause inconvenience of customers, and practical use thereof is limited due to environmental regulations. Furthermore, there is no substantial solution for the contamination caused by scales.
Therefore, ion exchange by using a cation exchange resin has been developed. In this case, a polymer chain including a functional group such as a sulfonyl group or a carboxyl group releases a counter-ion of the functional group such as a sodium ion (Na+) and adsorbs a positively charged hardness component such as a calcium ion (Ca2+) and a magnesium ion (Mg2+). However, since the number of the functional groups in the polymer is limited, metallic cations such as calcium ions (Ca2+) and magnesium ions (Mg2+) cannot be adsorbed by the polymer after the polymer is saturated. Accordingly, a regeneration process is required to remove the adsorbed cations and allow the polymer to re-adsorb the metallic cations.
As a system including a regeneration process after performing a softening process, an ion exchange resin method, capacitive deionization, and a method of using bipolar membrane may be used. However, these methods are not available due to high manufacturing costs, inconvenience of regeneration, and environmental pollution.